Mujib The Making of a Nation

Mujib The Making of a Nation is a 2023 epic biographical film based on the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first president of Bangladesh who is popularly known as Bangabandhu (lit. ’Friend of Bengal’). A co-production between Bangladesh and India, the film was directed by Shyam Benegal and stars Arifin Shuvoo in the titular role.

The film was produced on the occasion of Mujib Year. Arifin Shuvoo, Nusrat Imrose Tisha and Zayed Khan has taken only ৳ as remuneration for acting in this film.The film was scheduled to start production on 18 March 2020, a day after Bangabandhu’s birth centenary, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its art director is Nitish Roy. Pia Bengal is responsible for costume of the film as costume director. Dayal Nihalani is the associate Director. Its screenplay was done by Atul Tiwari and Shama Zaidi. Its executive producer is Nujhat Yasmin. Its line producer is Mohammad Hossain Jaimy.Its dialogue writer, script supervisor, and dialogue coach is Sadhana Ahmed.Its ca

sting director is Shyam Rawat and Baharuddin Khelon. This is the first government produced biopic about Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

 

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned to Bangladesh

 

On 10 January 1972,  after being release from Pakistani jail. The leaders present give Mujib a grand welcome with garlands. IN the presence of millions of people, Sheikh Mujib delivers his speech and gave the message of reconstruction of the new born country. Then Bangabandhu’s consort is narrated about the events from Mujib’s childhood.

Mujib meets Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy as a student leader. Suhrawardy is impressed by Mujib’s loyalty. Mujib’s political career begins during British Raj. After studying in Calcutta Baker Hostel, Mujib gets admission in Dhaka University. On February 21, 1952, the students of Dhaka University takes out a procession demanding Bengali as national language. When the procession arrives out through the gate of the university, the police opens fire directly on them causing heavy casualties. During this time, Sheikh Mujib goes on hunger strike while imprisoned. Apart from participating in the Bengali language movement, Sheikh Mujib plays an active role in the anti-Ayub movement. Tajuddin Ahmad, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Manik Mia and Shamsul Huq plays supporting roles to Sheikh Mujib.

Sheikh Mujib rise to fame in East Pakistan politics by discussing, criticizing, raising demands with the top leaders of Pakistan and his fight for secularism and autonomy. Mujib was inspired by Bertrand Russell’s philosophy and advocated freedom of the press.[29][30] He also protests  outside parliament.[31] During this time he is repeatedly arrested and imprisoned.[32] In 1966 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announces 6 point demands. In continuation of this, the mass uprising in 1969 and the Pakistani general election in 1970 are held.[33]

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gives his 7th March Speech

On March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gives his 7th March Speech at the Race Course Maidan.[34] He is rearrested by Pakistani Army and imprisoned in West

Pakistan after sending a message declaring Bangladesh as an independent state.[35] Begum Mujib became politically astute in Sheikh Mujib’s absence.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War, the Government of India provides uninterrupted assistance and support to Bangladesh.[36] Bangladesh achieves the final

victory through the surrender of the Pakistani army.[37]

In 1972, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returns to Bangladesh. After becoming prime minister he successes in taking the guidance of the elders and taking timely decisions.[38] During this time the constitution is framed and first general election is held.[39] He refuses to eat rice during the 1974 famine.[40] Later, a provisional national party called ‘Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League’ is formed and Mujib becomes the president of Bangladesh.[41]

Mujib spends his last days trying to build an exploitation-free society. At this time, Sheikh Mujib’s cabinet minister Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and Taher Uddin Thakur held a secret conspiratorial meeting with some military personnel to oust him from the presidency.[42] On the night of August 15, 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members are killed by a group of military officers.[43]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Cast

• Arifin Shuvoo as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (a.k.a. Bangabandhu)
• Dibya Joyti as younger Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
• Nusrat Imrose Tisha as Renu (Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib)
• Prarthana Fardin Dighi as younger Renu
• Nusraat Faria as Sheikh Hasina
• Wania Zarin Anvita as Sheikh Hasina, between the ages of 8 and 12 years.
• Shahidul Alam Sachchu as A. K. Fazlul Huq
• Deepak Antani as Mahatma Gandhi
• Rahul Singh as Muhammad Ali Jinnah
• Fazlur Rahman Babu as Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad

  

• Raisul Islam Asad as Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani
• Riaz as Tajuddin Ahmad
• Gazi Rakayet as Abdul Hamid, Renu’s grandfather
• Gayasuddin Sheikh as M. A. Wazed Miah, Hasina’s husband
•  Abeer Soofi as Major Ashok Tara (a war hero)
• Tushar Khan as Manik Mia
• Hasan Dip as a Police
• Rajit Kapur as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
• Anoop Puri as Yahya Khan, Pakistani president
• Shatabdi Wadud as a Pakistani Army officer
• Raajan Modi as Payenda Khan, punjabi army chief
• Amit Ghosh as a Pakistani cop
• Khairul Alam Sabuj as the father of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Lutfar Rahman 65–94 years.
• Chanchal Chowdhury as Sheikh Lutfar Rahman between the ages of 45 and 65 years
• Dilara Zaman as the mother of Bangabandhu, Sayera Khatun
• Sangeeta Chowdhury as younger Sayera Khatun
• Tauquir Ahmed as Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
• Anjum Khan as Akhter, Suhrawardy’s daughter
• Dewan Mohammad Saiful Islam Sayem Samad as Syed Nazrul Islam

Production

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 Mujib The Making of a Nation Background

Until 2016, many people wanted to make a film based on the life story of Bangabandhu, but their initiative was not successful.[b] Even before the production of this film, there was a demand to make a biographical film of Bangabandhu as a state initiative.[44] Actor Raj from East Pakistan announced to make a film about him titled Bangabandhu in 1970.[45] In an interview given to the weekly Chitrali in 1988, Farooque revealed his plan to make a film about Mujib.[46] It was reported by India Today in 2008[47] that Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury planned to make a film about Bangabandhu titled The Poet of Politics. It was rumored that it would be directed by Shyam Benegal and Amitabh Bachchan would be cast as the main character in the film. However, the film was not made.[48][44] In 2010, Vibgyor Films had planned to make a film about Bangabandhu in Hollywood. It was learned that the shooting of the film was scheduled to start in 2011.[49] Giasuddin

Selim wanted to make a film based on The Unfinished Memoirs, an autobiography book of Mujib, but he backed out due to lack of budget.[50] On 3 December, 2015, the then Minister of Cultural Affairs named Asaduzzaman Noor officially announced the Hasina government’s desire to make a biopic of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He also said that his ministry has discussed the matter with the Prime Minister and she has given the green signal.[51] Later, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, informed to the Bangladeshi prime minister named Sheikh Hasina the desire to produce a film on the life of her father by his government. His proposal was liked by her.[52] However, in that time, Hasina suggested to Modi that Bangladesh should jointly produce the proposed film with India.[53] On 17 August 2016, Venkaiah Naidu, the then information minister of India, declared the acceptance of the proposal to assist the production of the biographical film of Bangabandhu by the then information minister of Bangladesh Hasanul Haq Inu.[54] On 8 April 2017, in the presence of Sheikh Hasina at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi, Narendra Modi officially announced the joint-production of the film.[55]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Development

On 27 August 2017, an agreement was signed between the Government of Bangladesh and India in the capital of India. One of the purposes of the agreement was to make a film on Bangabandhu.[57] On 18 March 2018, the Government of Bangladesh announced that the preliminary work of making the film would start from that year.[48] A film committee was formed with 19 people from Bangladesh and India to implement the film project. The coordinator of the committee was the additional secretary of the Ministry of Information of Bangladesh.[58] Hasanul Haq Inu organized several meetings regarding Bangabandhu’s biopic during his tenure as Information Minister. Film directors and experts participating in the meetings gave their opinion in favor of directing the film by any director of the country. So it was initially decided that the film would be directed by Nasiruddin Yousuff.[59] But the film committee chose Shyam Benegal as the director when three directors from India were nominated in July 2018[60] to direct the film.[c][62] Shyam Benegal accepted the offer to direct the film as he felt that the main character of the film was an interesting character in his time.[52][d] On 27 August 2018, Tarana Halim officially announced his name as the director of the film on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh.[64] In 2019, it was announced that a three-member expert team from Bangladesh would be formed to assist the film’s director. It was decided that the team would include a historian, an acquaintance of Mujib and an experienced film personality.[60] Sheikh Hasina initially did not want to be included in the production but Benegal later forced her.[65] On 1 April 2019, Shyam Benegal visited Bangladesh to discuss the film project with Sheikh Hasina and film associates.[58] The budget of the film was set at est. ৳4.0 crore at a meeting held in New Delhi on 7 May 2019.[66] But it was learned later from Nuzhat Yeasmin, one of executive producers of the film that the budget of this film is ৳8.3 crore.[e] Bangladesh has given ৳5.0 crore of the budget and India has given ৳3.3 crore.[1] After the Bangladesh delegation visited India on 7 May 2019 and discussed with the Indians, the matter of making the film was finalized.[67] On 6 October 2019, the director talked with Sheikh Hasina in a meeting at New Delhi for the film.[68] Later another film related agreement was finalised on 14 January 2020.[69] Shyam Benegal further said that this is a Bengali nationalist film.[56] Sheikh Hasina wanted the language of the film to be in English or Hindustani or Urdu. But Shyam Benegal decided to make the film in Bengali, the state language of Bangladesh.[f][70] Benegal does not know Bengali, for this reason he had to enlist the help of translators.[71] Two years later its official title was announced.[72] The director gave the name to the film as the meaning of Mujib is significant.[70]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Character

Character development of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a difficult task for Benegal. As steadfast as Mujib was to his political ideals and movements, he gave importance to his family And he was more of a family man than all the important personalities of the Indian subcontinent. And so his life is presented in this film from an emotional point of view.[70] The director said that Mujib will be portrayed in a balanced manner in the film.[73]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Writing

Atul Tiwari planned to visit Bangladesh in May 2019 as part of his film research. Piplu Khan was his helper and research related assistant.[74] Atul Tiwari visited Bangladesh with Shama Zaidi on 19 May and investigated the biopic related historical places.[66] As part of the research for the film, Sheikh Hasina assisted the director with information about her father’s life. Although the film script was reviewed by her, she did not demand any major change in the script.[52] In order to complete the screenplay, Shama Zaidi and Atul Tiwari adhered to research paper on the main character of the film written by Gowher Rizvi. As part of the research, the screenwriters collected information from people associated with Bangabandhu. A scriptwriters’ committee was formed to write the script for the film. Anam Biswas, Gias Uddin Selim, Shihab Shaheen and Sadhana Ahmed were selected as members of this committee. Asaduzzaman Noor assisted the members as an advisor to the committee.[13] All kinds of historical works from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have been taken for its screenplay.[65] From February to August 2020, many minor corrections was made to the screenplay of the film.[75]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Costume

The shooting of the film was originally scheduled to start before 2018 Bangladeshi general election.[94] Then the date was shifted to November 2019.[74] On 7 May 2019, the director stated his team’s desire to complete its filming in 80 days.[95] Later the date was changed to 18 March 2020, but suspended.[10] As per the initial plan, indoor shooting of the film was to be done in Kolkata and outdoor shooting in Bangladesh.[93] The film’s shooting started with muhurat shot under the working title Bangabandhu: The Making of a Nation[70][72] on 21 January 2021, in India.[k] The first phase of the shooting was planned to be completed in the country within 100 days[69] and it was completed on 4 April, 2021.[97] It was informed that the scenes of the liberation war would be shot in the second phase.[69] The shooting of the film had to be postponed many times due to the COVID-19 lockdown in India[98] and Cyclone Tauktae and Yaas.[99] From 20 November, several scenes of the film were shot in many places of Bangladesh as well.[l] The shooting for 7 March Speech of Bangabandhu scenes took place on 23 November 2021 at the football field of Dhaka College.[103] On 4 December 2021, a scene of the Bengali language movement was captured at Madhur Canteen.[104] The shooting of the second phase ended after 59 days.[105] As of April 2022, it is known that A total of 960 minutes were recorded as draft footage.[106] According to a report of Samakal on 11 September 2022, the production team is thinking of re-shooting some scenes.[107]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Editing and visual effects

In March 2022, it was reported by Prothom Alo that post-production of the film had already begun.[72] It was planned to do the post-production in Mumbai.[95] Benegal stated that post-production is likely to be completed by June, 2022.[108] The editing of the film was supervised by a team from Bangladeshi government. However, due to the trailer controversy in May 2022, the production team started re-editing the footages of the film. Bangladeshi film experts will be consulted after editing the film on the advice of the supervising team. If they do not object, the film will be released only after showing it to Sheikh Hasina. According to a report of Samakal on 11 September 2022, Makuta VFX was appointed for visual effects of the film.[59][107] On 12 September 2022, Hasan Mahmud stated that the film is ready for release.[109]

 Mujib The Making of a Nation Music

In 2021, the production team contacted Zahid Akbar to compose one of the song for the film. The song was named Ochin Majhi (lit. ’The mysterious boatman’) whose composer and singer was Shantanu Moitra, the music director of the film. It is the first music sang by him for any film.[110][111] The director asked music director Moitra to refrain from putting pressure on himself while working. While working on the film’s music, he wanted to incorporate Bangladeshi folk music influences. He had to watch the film half a hundred times for inspiration while producing the background music.[112]